Messy cemetery on Memorial Day a 'disgrace'

To the Editor:

Monday, May 27, was Memorial Day, but I don’t think the city of Ironwood was aware of this fact, since the Riverside Cemetery looked absolutely terrible. This is the worst the cemetery has looked for Memorial Day in years. This is a disgrace.

There were piles of leaves all over the place, the grass was not cut, and to top it all off, the water was not turned on. I understand somewhat why the grass wasn’t cut, since our spring was so wet with all the snow; however, it didn’t seem wet down there that weekend, so something should have been done the week before in preparation for Memorial Day. The leaves should have been picked up last fall, since the city has a machine that picks up leaves.

This is a disgrace, since anyone who has graves in Riverside Cemetery pays perpetual care on the graves, which means that the grass should be cut, and there should not be mounds of leaves all over the cemetery. I put real flowers on my wife’s family’s graves and my family’s graves, so when we realized the water was not even turned on in the cemetery, we couldn’t believe it.

The perpetual care fund should only be used for maintenance of Riverside Cemetery, and the city of Ironwood has tried to borrow from this fund for other things in the past. This is not right. With the amount of money in that fund, Riverside Cemetery should be in pristine condition all spring and summer.

I have family graves in the Hurley Cemetery also, and that cemetery looked beautiful. The city of Hurley obviously cares about Memorial Day and how their cemetery looks on such an important day.

The city of Ironwood and the city manager should be ashamed of themselves at how bad Riverside Cemetery looked for Memorial Day. That is a day to honor those who served in the armed forces and all of our family members who have died.

The citizens of Ironwood shouldn’t take it out on Joe Kuker or Steve Lehto, since they are the only two workers at the cemetery and the city won’t authorize any other help.

This should never happen again, and anyone who was upset at how Riverside Cemetery looked over Memorial Day Weekend should go up to the Ironwood Memorial Building and issue a complaint.